Stephen Curry has not been an All-Star, but NBA honchos are impressed with his game.

Photo: Darren Abate, Associated Press

Stephen Curry has not been an All-Star, but NBA honchos are...

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CORRECTS JACKSONVILLE TEAM NAME - San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick smiles during a press conference in Watford, north of London, Wednesday Oct. 23 2013, prior to their game against Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday (AP Photo/Dave Shopland, NFL UK)

Plus, the 49ers feature the NFL's weirdest coach, Jim Hardball. He played nightclub bouncer last Sunday, breaking up a sideline scuffle, and did his usual highly animated, raging-bull sideline shtick.

The Raiders spent the offseason trying to build the blandest team in sports, collecting 50 guys nobody has ever heard of, and they might finish 2-14. Yet the Raiders were forced into the read-option quarterback fad - the Bay Area is that movement's laboratory - and Terrelle Pryorhas made the team compelling. On any given Sunday, he's a threat to out-Kaepernick Kaepernick.

The A's are the low-rent darlings of baseball, a badass street rod built from junkyard parts. Throw in Sonny Gray (DoogieHowser in cleats), the flip-flop genius of Billy Beane and a ballpark with apocalypse plumbing, and you've got a hell of a show, bro.

The Sharks are always in the hunt, and now they've got a teen sensation who is Pete Maravichon skates. Coolness factor: high.

The Giants? OK, their fizz turned to zzzz last season, but they're trying.

-- There were 42,000 unused seats when Kanye Westproposed to Kardashian, but the Giants announced it as a sellout.

-- Stanford's football team put up a high graduation-rate number, but it was misleading. Andrew Luckraised the rate several points by graduating three or four times.

-- Crossing an ocean is tough enough for a football team, with the disruption of routine and culture shock, and yet the 49ers changed practice fields and hotels Friday in England. Seems a bit of needless meandering, just when the players were getting accustomed to the clotted cream and spotted dick at the first resort.

-- RIP, Bum Phillips, who inspired the homespun classic definition of a great coach: "He can take his'un and beat your'un, and he can take your'un and beat his'un."

-- There's no crying in baseball. Whining? Absolutely. Don Mattinglypouted publicly over the prospect of managing next season on the last year of his contract. "I am basically trying out and auditioning." He did that whimpering after making decisions that helped cost the Dodgers a trip to the World Series.

-- Whatever happened to shutting up and serving the final year on a contract you signed? The Dodgers should've told Mattingly, "Grab some pavement, Meat."

-- I never met a man in sports I liked more than Bill Sharman, who died Friday. When you ran into Sharman, however your day was going, it instantly got good.

-- On the very short list of NBA stars who became great coaches, Bill Sharman was No. 1. Coached a title team in the old ABA, then coached the Lakers to their title in 1971-72. Sadly, he had to quit coaching when he blew out his voice.

-- Quiz: Name the Bill Sharman invention that every NBA player wishes he had kept to himself. Answer below.

-- Here's the best way to explain the 49ers-Jaguars mismatch to the British: The Jaguars are this year's NFL version of Eddie the Eagle.

-- Quiz answer: Sharman invented the shootaround, the morning-of-game practice. Wilt Chamberlain, a late sleeper, famously groused, "I'm going to the arena only one time today. You decide which time."